Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) systems are gaining in popularity and providing useful for many applications including gaming, entertainment, advertising, architecture and design, medical, sports, aviation, tactical, engineering, and military applications. Most VR and AR systems use personal computers with powerful graphics cards to run software and display the graphics necessary for enjoying an advanced virtual environment. To display virtual reality environments, many systems use head-mounted displays (HMDs).
Many HMDs include two displays, one for each eye, to create a stereoscopic effect and give the illusion of depth. HMDs also can include on-board processing and operating systems such as Android to allow application to run locally, which eliminates any need for physical tethering to an external device. Sophisticated HMDs incorporate positioning systems that track the user's head position and angle to allow a user to virtually look around a VR or AR environment simply by moving his head. Sophisticated HMDs may also track eye movement and hand movement to bring additional details to attention and allow natural interactions with the VR or AR environment.
While traditional HMDs include dedicated components, interest is growing to develop an HMD that incorporates a user's own mobile device such as smart phones, tablets, and other portable or mobile devices having video displays. In order to create an immersive VR or AR environment, however, the HMD should be sized, configured, and constructed in specific way for use with a particular mobile device. Additionally, in order to create an immersive VR or AR environment, the single traditional display on the mobile device must be converted to a stereoscopic display.
One particular problem with stereoscopic displays of VR or AR systems, traditional HMDs, and HMDs that incorporate mobile devices with video displays is motion blur, which is the apparent streaking of rapidly moving objects in the three-dimensional video. Motion blur is further exacerbated by head movement. Current VR systems, AR systems, and HMDs fail to provide an effective way of reducing motion blur. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an apparatus that can be incorporated in or included as a component of VR or AR systems in general and of HMD or VR/AR headsets in particular to reduce motion blur. Moreover, it would be desirable to provide a method of using the apparatus to reduce motion blur while viewing three-dimensional video.